Tag Archives: pharmacy

The Pharmacy Division is in the final stages of developing its proposal for the new PharmD program at the University of Saskatchewan. At two recent faculty retreats, there was agreement on a draft curriculum structure which includes an expanded experiential education program. Students will be able to interact with patients, preceptors, and other health professionals throughout the program with weekly experiential activities, two 4-week introductory rotations in the summers between year 1 and 2 and years 2 and 3. Service learning, an important part of the current BSP program will continue through year one of the PharmD. After a brief orientation, students in their final year will complete 32 weeks of advanced experiential education consisting of three eight week ‘core’ patient care rotations, and an elective 8 week rotation.

Prior to submission to the University, the Pharmacy Division will review the full proposal on Oct 23, and the College’s Faculty Council will also meet to approve it on Oct 30. Our target for submission to the Academic Programs Committee of University Council is November 1, 2015. Once submitted, the full proposal will be considered by APC prior to their recommending it to University Council. The budget and tuition model will be reviewed by the Board of Governors (Dec 2015 and Mar 2016), and the revised admission requirements will be looked at by University Senate (April 2016). If this timeline moves forward as planned, we expect full approval by April 30, 2016, for implementation in the fall of 2017. In addition to extensive consultation within the University, we will also consult with government and the community regarding the proposal.

While the proposal is moving through the various consultative stages, the faculty will continue its work to flesh out the courses, and teaching and assessment strategies so that a more detailed program document can be submitted to CCAPP for consideration for ‘provisional accreditation’ of the PharmD program, when the CCAPP accreditation team visits the College in the fall of 2016 to review the BSP program.

Further information about the program will be posted as it becomes available. Watch this site for updates and opportunities to provide feedback!

We are forging ahead with our work within these streams and are planning to come together for our next faculty retreat scheduled for late June.

To date, the Experiential Education Working Group has formed and has held its first meeting. At this time the College wishes to extend thanks to the preceptors across the province and country that have volunteered to help with this project. While it is important to note that not everyone can be actively involved in participation on the Experiential Education working group, we do plan to draw upon your knowledge and expertise for future projects that will stem from this working group.

We wish to thank everyone for their continued involvement and interest in our program development.

Welcome to PharmD Update! This is the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition’s blog to keep you informed as the new PharmD curriculum is developed. We’ve heard many questions from both students and alumni who are curious about what the new PharmD credential means for them, so we’ve started this blog to provide the necessary answers. We’ll take you through the entire PharmD development process, and this format gives you the opportunity to submit your questions and comments.

In November, the faculty held a retreat to begin work on developing the new PharmD curriculum. After a number of productive meetings the groundwork was laid to begin the curriculum development process. The following email from Professor Emeritus Linda Suveges was recently circulated to the faculty and staff, and it outlines the next steps over the coming months.

Note: We’re even ahead of schedule on the PharmD portal – it’s this blog!

Colleagues:

There are two purposes for this message: first I want to thank everyone for all the ideas and your enthusiastic participation in our discussions at our recent retreat. It was awesome! Second, I want to give you an idea of what we propose as a timeline for the ‘next steps”:

An Executive Summary of the retreat, along with a timeline (based on a new implementation date of 2017) and a list of action items will be circulated by December 15, 2014.

A PharmD portal is being set up on our website so we can keep stakeholders informed about developments. It will be ‘live’ after December 15, 2014.

A draft PharmD program will be developed and circulated by January 31, 2015. It will include proposed prerequisites and courses/activities for years 1 through 4, developed from all the ideas generated at the retreat and any that may follow in the next few weeks.

Certain working groups will be activated (or reactivated) and will report in January so their work can be incorporated into the draft program (e.g., the Admissions WG will provide answers to the action items defined for it.)

We will be making a joint statement with SCP about the Pharm D, the website portal and the College’s plan moving forward that will be circulated to all pharmacists in the province. We hope to make this joint statement either at the end of the year or in early 2015.

The next Faculty Retreat will be held Wednesday February 25, 2015. As you prepare your term 2 courses and activities, please arrange things so you can attend this important retreat where we expect to make decisions about the program so we can move it forward for further development.

If new ideas or questions about the PharmD program have emerged since the Retreat, please forward them to me and I will answer and/or keep track of them as we move forward in our curriculum planning activities.

Thanks again for your help and support as we move forward. My best wishes to all for the next few weeks as the term draws to a close! (And no, I am not available to mark any exams!)

Linda

Remember, we welcome your questions and comments! Feel free to use the “Leave a Reply” function below, or email our communications specialist at kieran.kobitz@usask.ca. Your questions and comments will help guide us on what to write for future blogs. We may not have the answers yet, but we’ll make it a priority to ensure you’re informed as soon as possible.

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